Sunday, June 12, 2016

Where's the fire?

By Joe Hill

Publisher: William Morrow

Pub. date: May 17, 2016

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Where’s the fire?

Joe Hill has certainly made a name for himself
and it is not just because of his genetic credentials. He is unarguably
one hell of a writer and arguably one of the best fantasy/horror writers
actively working. In Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and especially NOS4A2, Hill has hit a peak of popularity in the horror genre previously known only to…”You know who”. In fact, the range of The Fireman
suggests that, like his father, Hill is setting sights far beyond the
horror ghetto. Or to put it more colloquially, he is eyeing a place at
the adult table. It is not surprising that The Fireman would be so hyped
and eagerly awaited. The book’s post-apocalyptic atmosphere and its
epic size (over 700 pages!) set up the reader to expect a lot. Is this
really going be the answer to The Stand as one book promotion so foolishly worded it?

Of course not. There is a lot of good in The Fireman
but also a lot of not-so-good. Any novel needs to be judged on what is
in the pages and how it all comes together, not the hype or the author’s
past achievements. In The Fireman we are introduced to a very
near future where there is a disease that creates gold and black marks
on the body and eventually causes the victim to spontaneously combust.
Harper Grayson, a nurse who works with the victims, becomes a victim
herself when she breathes in the ashes of a burning hospital. Her
husband convinces her to make a pact to kill themselves before the
disease turns them into flames. But when she discovers she is pregnant
she cannot go through with it since she have seen people with the
disease bear healthy babies. This leads her to a community of people
with the affliction hiding from the Cremation Squads who are killing the
bearers of the Dragonscale, as it is called. They have their own way of
surviving the Dragonscale. It is a very imaginative way and one of the
great strengths of this tale. The community is looked over by a man who
has done more than survive, having learned how to use the Dragonscale
for defense and revenge. He is called The Fireman.

It is an
intriguing plot and for the first two hundred pages or so it works. But
then it falters for a variety of reasons. By 200 pages, the reader is
realizing there is a lot of filler here. We learn about the residents of
this new community mainly through backstories told by the residents
themselves. It is a rambling, action-stopping form of storytelling that
is needlessly long. This is especially troublesome since many of the
characters do have interesting back stories which lead to their
development. But it still halts the flow. The main character Harper is
quite interesting and she is certainly a strong character that kept me
wanting to know how she would fare through. I was also intrigued by the
fireman and his connection with the group and with Harper. I sensed a
sort of a Wuthering Heights relationship building up and I
wasn’t wrong. Yet I was not convinced by her decision to stay in what
turns out to be the equivalent of a dysfunctional family. What we end up
with is a story that is trying to be an epic tale when it really want
to be a very good 200-300 page novel.

I was not always sure what
the author wanted to do with his plot. It starts out at the beginning as
a post-apocalyptic novel and I like the emphasis on Harper as being the
eyes we see it through. It lent a personal touch of an individual
struggling through a plague that threatens to destroy the world. I also
liked how we slowly learn what the Dragonscale is and discovers what it
really means for the survivors and their world. Yet when we get into the
residents of the community, it starts to be less post-apocalyptic and
more Lord of the Flies. It’s a U-turn that didn’t work well
with me. Then we have some unrealistic characters like Allie, a teenage
girl who I assume is supposed to be precocious and likable but I just
wanted to kick her in the behind.

Having said all that, much of The Fireman
is excellent. There is no getting around the fact that Joe Hill can
write some amazing scenes and there are quite a few in this novel. It’s
the tie-in to each that slows it down. This is one of those books that
has a dynamite novel in it hidden by filler that could have been fixed
by a more word-budget oriented writer and a tight-ass editor. However,
Joe Hill fans, and I count myself as one of them, will not be entirely
disappointed. Despite my misgivings, the author is still writing above
anyone else on the bestseller lists in this genre. It also is a nice
step to bigger stories with more universal themes, a place I see him
going with gusto, just like” you know who” at the same stage in his
career. But NOS4A2 is still his masterpiece and shows more structure, imagination and experimentation than The Fireman. If you have not read anything by Joe Hill, that is where you want to go.

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About Me

My name is Marvin P. Vernon and I am a retired social worker who specialized in family therapy and domestic violence prevention. In the past, I have been a contributor to the Fact on File Student Thesaurus and currently pass my time as an avid reader and reviewer. I also work as a volunteer librarian at the Sun City Palm Desert Library. You can also find my reviews on Goodreads You can contact me at mpvernon5149@yahoo.com